Shepherd by day, sculptor by night: Inspiring story from Turkey’s east

MUŞ

A shepherd from Turkey’s eastern province of Muş has been attracting attention with the sculptures he makes from wood parts.

Vedat Yalçın, a native of Muş, makes ends meet working as a shepherd, but his secret talent stands out.

Yalçın started sculpturing when his drawings of human figures on rocks attracted attention and he decided to advance his technique.

“Four years ago, when I was shepherding, I saw a rock. That rock drew my attention as it was saying ‘I’m not an ordinary rock.’ That day, I took it and started stone dressing. Then, I made sculptures from wood, rocks and a lot of waste materials,” Yalçın told the state-run Anadolu Agency.

He first started to collect rocks, woods and waste materials from the mountains where he grazes his sheep flock and sculpted them into shapes with a hammer and chisel.

“I am looking at the rocks and the wood from a perspective no one looks from. I take those which resemble a face or an object and start working on it,” he said.

“It’s like some trees say, ‘I do not want to burn to ashes,’ to me,” he added.

The gifted shepherd also said that his works show the young people around him that anything can be done as long as one wants to do it. He also added that the villagers started to pay attention to his works even though he faced some criticism in the beginning.

“They started to come and take a look at what I’m doing every day. As I did my work, they understand what I want to do,” he said.

Yalçın also underlined that one of his dreams is to open his first exhibition in his village, as soon as he has enough sculptures.